External Auditor-62.03

The Board of Trustees of Howard Community College will retain certified public accountant services to perform an annual audit as stated in Title 16 of the Education Article of the Annotated Code of the State of Maryland, from a firm with operations in Maryland and experience in education. Selection of a firm will be conducted in accordance with the procedure, 62.05B.01 – Request for Proposals.

The college will solicit for services every three years and have the option to extend the contract for two additional years.

The board will award the contract for one fiscal year and will authorize the president to extend the contract one fiscal year at a time for four additional fiscal years provided that funds have been authorized, the quality of past services has been acceptable to the college, and the fee for the extended contract is considered reasonable by the college. If the firm is retained longer than three years, the lead/coordinating and reviewing partners, will remove themselves from the audit team for the last two years of the contract.

The administration shall not contract with the audit firm for additional financial services without prior approval of the board. This restriction does not apply to tax services.

The external auditor will make the board aware of any material items related to accounting, internal controls, and auditing matters and the specific findings related to these items.